452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I select him, because even so eminent an authority in our own 

 time as Dr. Edward Robinson declares him to have been the most 

 thorough, thoughtful, and enlightened traveler of that century. 



Fabri is greatly impressed by the wonders of the Dead Sea, 

 and typical of his honesty influenced by faith is his account of the 

 Dead Sea fruit ; he describes it with almost perfect accuracy, but 

 adds the statement that when mature it is " filled with ashes and 

 cinders." 



As to the salt statue, he says : " We saw the place between the 

 sea and Mount Segor, but could not see the statue itself because 

 we were too far distant to see anything of human size ; but we 

 saw it with firm faith, because we believed Scripture, which speaks 

 of it ; and we were filled with wonder." 



To sustain absolute faith in the statue he reminds his readers 

 that " God is able even of these stones to raise up seed to Abra- 

 ham," and goes into a long argument, discussing such transforma- 

 tions as those of King Atlas and Pygmalion's statue, with a mul- 

 titude of others, winding up with the case, given in the miracles 

 of St. Jerome, of a heretic who was changed into a log of wood, 

 which was then burned. 



He gives a statement of the Hebrews that Lot's wife received 

 her peculiar punishment because she had refused to add salt to the 

 food of the angels when they visited her, and he preaches a short 

 sermon in which he says that, as salt is the condiment of food, so 

 the salt statue of Lot's wife " gives us a condiment of wisdom." * 



There were indeed many discrepancies in the testimony of 

 travelers regarding the salt pillar so many, in fact, that at a later 

 period the learned Dom Calmet acknowledged that they shook his 

 belief in the whole matter ; but, during this earlier time, under 

 the complete sway of the theological spirit, these difficulties only 

 gave new and more glorious opportunities for faith. 



For, if a considerable interval occurred between the washing 

 of one salt pillar out of existence and the washing of another into 

 existence, the idea arose that the statue, by virtue of the soul 

 which still remained in it, had departed on some mysterious excur- 

 sion ; did it happen that one statue was washed out one year in 

 one place and another statue another year in another place, this 

 difficulty was surmounted by believing that Lot's wife still walked 

 about ; did it happen that a salt column was undermined by the 

 rains and fell, this was believed to be but another sign of life ; did 



* For Bernhard of Breydenbach, see marked pages in the Latin edition, Mentz, 1486, in 

 the White collection, Cornell University, also in German edition in the " Reyssebuch " ; for 

 John of Solrns, Werli, and the like, see the " Reyssebuch," which gives a full text of their 

 travels. For Fabri (Schmid), see, for his value, Robinson, also Tobler, " Bibliographia," 

 53 et seq. ; and for texts the "Reyssebuch," 122b ct seq., but best the "Fratris Fel. Fabri 

 Evagatorium," ed. Hassler, Stuttgart, 1813, iii, 172 ct seq. 



